Breadcrumbs

Gardening Projects

My seedlings have grown and put out a second set of leaves, so that means it's time to upgrade their living arrangements. The peppers aren't quite there yet, but they are close enough. They're going to send out their second set of leaves within a few days. I didn't expect these seedlings to grow so fast! Next year I probably will not use the Jiffy trays, and I probably will not grow 100 plants when I only have room for a dozen on my patio!

I don't suspect the tomatoes will go through any shock, but the peppers seemed a bit more sensitive to being disturbed. I'll have to pick the cream of the crop and the rest will probably have to go in the trash. Time to transplant ...

I've purchased two kinds of pots. For the plants I wish to keep I'm going to use 5" plastic pots, for the plants I may give away to friends I'll be using 8 oz biodegradable cups without the jiffy trays you can buy with them (last year they molded easily). The rest of the plants that I'm not likely to keep or give away will probably go in some 8 oz plastic cups I would use for parties, but since I don't do parties ... Really at this stage they are ready for the 5" pots as I discovered later on. The plants in 5" pots are thriving far more even though I wouldn't have thought they needed a pot that big yet.

For the soil I've switched to Sta-Green Flower & Vegetable Garden Soil. I think they're ready for something more than just seed starting mix. Last year I tried Sta-Green along with Miracle Grow and Sta-Green won. The Miracle Grow always seemed to have Fungus Gnats! This already has fertilizer in it as well. My only gripe is that it doesn't drain that well, so next year I'll probably want to mix this with something else to help that. It eventually drains good, but only after it's been saturated enough with water (it was bone dry when I bought it). This is a 2 cu-ft bag and I used most of it! I also bought a bag of Sta-Green Potting Mix, which actually might be much more suitable for this. It's about the same as the garden soil, but I think it has perlite in it to help with drainage.

I had to put the extra seedlings outside and I do not expecting them to survive. We haven't had our last frost yet. Also outside I have green onions, lots of them. I planted these about a month ago as my only winter crop. I can't eat most things that would grow outside this time of year, but I do eat a lot of green onion.